Nissan has the potential to double its market share in the Middle East but needs to offer the consumer more smaller and cheaper cars, its CEO says.

Nissan eyes Middle East market

Nissan has the potential to double its market share in the Middle East but needs to offer the consumer more smaller and cheaper cars, Renault-Nissan president and CEO Carlos Ghosn said on Sunday.

"I think we are far, far from our potential," said Ghosn, who was in the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi, to launch a new version of Nissan's Patrol SUV. "I'm looking for doubling the market share in the Middle East."

"One of the reasons... we're not maximising market share is we don't have enough small cars, and cheaper cars," he said.

Small, inexpensive cars based on the company's V-Platform, which will be launched in Geneva next month, will be key to addressing this shortage, he said.

Carla Bailo, programme manager for the Patrol, said Nissan expects its updated SUV model to sell around 20,000 units a year in the Middle East, up from the current model's five to eight thousand.

Nissan is the second largest car manufacturer in terms of market share in the region after Toyota, Ghosn said, declining to give specific figures.

He said Toyota's brake and accelerator problems, which have caused the company to recall millions of vehicles, could offer Nissan a short-term tactical advantage, but probably nothing more.

"When a car company is in trouble, yes, you can have some tactical advantages in the short-term," he said.

"But frankly, don't expect anything more than that... I think you progress in your market share because of your product, your merit, not because somebody else is weak."

Ghosn also said he "would like Renault-Nissan to be the pioneer and the leader" in electric vehicles. "I want electric car (to) mean Renault or Nissan, period," he said.

"There are two things which are absolutely important to understand for the electric car," he said. "The first is the CO2 problem is here to stay," and the second is that oil prices are likely to increase.

"I don't think you need to be a huge visionary... to say zero emission cars are going to be a part of this industry," he said, adding that the only question was how much of the market would be made up of electric cars.

"You're gonna see that all car manufacturers will end up doing an electric car," he said.

Nissan is to launch its first electric vehicle, the Leaf, by the end of 2010, Ghosn said.

He said that a Nissan electric light commercial vehicle, luxury sedan and a small "city car" were also in the works, along with four Renault electric vehicles.

Earlier this month, Nissan Motor upgraded its earnings outlook, saying it was on course to end the current financial year in the black thanks to solid demand in China and other emerging markets.

Japan's number three automaker said it now expects a net profit of Y35 billion ($A437.94 million) for the current fiscal year to March, against an earlier projection of a Y40 billion ($A500.5 million) loss.